February 16 – “OK. No problem. But, why?”

I finally got to meet Sophia, the famous substitute teacher at Seaside Christian Academy.  She was preparing to give a vocabulary test.  The interactions I saw between her and the students seemed to indicate that she has been accepted and is fairly well-liked.  I like her, too.  She's bubbly.  Bubbly is good.   Chris called around 9 to tell me they had moved up her Mom's procedure to 12:30.  They discovered some blood clots in her legs yesterday, so today they went in and installed a filter between the clots and her heart.  That sounded serious to me.  Chris said in the grand scheme of heart procedures, this was the least serious.  Encouraging.  Unless the patient has about half of the capacity she's supposed to.  Even with her reassuring, I felt an overwhelming pull that I needed to meet them up in Houston.  I got there shortly before they called her back, so I didn't get to pray with her directly, but I did lift her up for the next hour or so.  Finally, the doctor came out to let us know that everything went well.  In fact she stayed awake and watched the whole thing on a monitor.  She told us later that afterwards she entertained the nurses.  That could mean anything from talking their ears off to dancing on the table.  They released her after about two hours, and we even stopped at Cracker Barrel on the way home.  This was one of those ministry moments that I don't really understand yet, and might not ever.  Why the strong urge to be there?  I talked to Josh on my way home to wish him a happy 29th birthday.  He said he had a similar feeling about today, so he'd been praying, too.  It's one of those things that you do because you promised to obey no matter what, and then trust God to do his thing.   Speaking of Josh, after their record snowfall (10 plus inches), both boys came up sick.  Zakary is fine now, but Caleb has been running a high fever and has been listless and whiney.  They got him an appointment today.  Double ear infection.  The antibiotics should start in on him soon.  I asked Josh how it felt for it to be your birthday and the only thing you can think about is how sick your kid is.  He said he felt most definitely inducted into the Fatherhood Club.   I only got one call while at the hospital.  It was to ask where to put the census people.  They are using Seaside as a site where you can come get help on how to fill out the form.  Don't know how much action they will get in Jamaica Beach, but maybe the school kids can learn something.   Romans 15:13 says, "May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit."   Father, I'm trying to obey, even when I don't understand the why.  Amen.